The St. Mary’s Gaels were unable to nail down an automatic bid in last night’s 2011 WCC Championship game, but that loss to Gonzaga does not necessarily end their 2011 NCAA Tournament hopes. While Saint Mary’s does sit squarely in the cross hairs of the Bubble Watch, they managed to avoid any embarrassing losses in the WCC tournament.

Chris Dobbertean over at the dot com put together his latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology report and he has kept the Gaels in his tournament projection, slotting them in as an 11 seed. He has SMC facing Georgetown in the Charlotte pod, with the winner facing the winner of North Carolina and Bucknell. He includes St. Mary’s as one of the final eight teams in the tournament, which makes sense at this point.

Joe Lunardi updated his own bracket projection at ESPN and he also leaves the Gaels in the tournament. He has them as a ten seed facing UCLA in the Chicago pod, with the winner facing the winner of Notre Dame and St. Peter’s. This inclusion as a ten seed would seem to indicate a greater confidence in St. Mary’s tournament hopes.